


gold

by Michinokao



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blue Spirit Zuko (Avatar), Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Philosophy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26805061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michinokao/pseuds/Michinokao
Summary: A crown heir has to see what’s going on in his kingdom before becoming its leader, doesn’t he?Zuko dons the Blue Spirit persona a lot earlier.
Relationships: Fire Nation Citizen(s) & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 257





	gold

It’s surprisingly easy, all things considered, to vanish into the dark of the night without being seen, heard or noticed by any of the supposedly Fire Lord-worthy guards that are placed in front of the palace. Laughably easy, even.

Zuko halts behind one of the great trees for a moment. This season, luckily, they haven’t burnt down in the heat of the scorching sun and, thus, are able to cover him well. He dares a glance, finds that the uniformed soldier doesn’t even consider looking his way (and that’s just not passable; when he’s the Fire Lord, he’ll have to seriously reinforce their work morale) and, with steps as silent as only those of people who have been hunted by mentally unstable little sisters are, he slips out of the palace’s grounds.

Through the damn fence. The iron bars are too far apart. If someone’s thin enough, Zuko now knows, they could head into his home without trouble. That’s... unsettling, in all honesty. His fingers readjust the heavy mask – sto... no, _borrowed_ from his mother’s collection – that is perched awkwardly on his young face. On silent feet the boy rushes from shadow to shadow, from hiding spot A to hiding spot B. The streets are still filled with chattering people, some drunk, some depressingly sober (why do they look so... so... down? They should be happy to belong to Caldera’s inhabitants. Right? Right.) and some look even expressionless, as if someone grabbed a towel and rubbed off any evidence of them having feelings.

The ones who grin, who laugh and are merrily partying, are all people Zuko knows from various social gatherings reserved for the Fire Nation’s nobility. Over there, leaning against a house’s wall and chuckling at a joke one of her friends has made, is a general’s daughter. Sulin is her name, he thinks, and watches her do a little twirl in her silky bright red dress with blushing cheeks.

Next to Sulin and her group, a man sits on the dusty road. His garments are dirty, _he_ is dirty and an apathetic frown mars his visage. Zuko, crouching behind an overflowing trashcan, can only stare at the stark difference the picture paints. He’s reminded of a theatre scroll he picked up ages ago at the market during one of the few times they’ve visited their vacation home on Ember Island. There had been a mention of a character being incredibly poor – in the Fire Nation, of all places! – and Zuko has had to laugh in disbelief. The Fire Nation is undeniably wealthy, a nation where technological advances and prosperity never stop flowing. Its richness reflects itself in their national colours – red and _gold_.

The man on the ground, poor and discarded and still, with a cracked ceramic bowl at his side in which there lie exactly three coins, wears dark brown. Most people Zuko watches, as he’s veiled by the darkness of the shadows, are clad in similar fashion. There are reds and there are golds... but they’re only ever worn by noblemen and –women.

From somewhere, the boy hears a cry. A woman. Nobody rushes to find out what the noise is about. Sulin, from whom his eyes haven’t strayed in a while – not due to her beauty but because she throws scowls at the beggar as though he offends her by being alive – doesn’t even look up at the hoarse voice. It has to be a daily occurrence, then, to hear strange cries in Caldera’s night, ethereally illuminated by paper lanterns with a few electrical ones in between.

Zuko wants to go home. That was a dumb idea anyways. He wants to forget about the cry and Sulin’s nonchalance and the dirty beggar and the nobles who behave like they’re better than the rest of the civilians.

He wants to go home because if he looks deeper into the divide between rich and poor he might find out things he doesn’t find good. And, as a prince, to find something bad about his hometown and the Fire Nation’s capital is akin to mental treason. Zuko is loyal. Zuko has always been loyal.

Then why can’t he remove his watchful eyes from the scene in front of him? It’s a single scene and it doesn’t have to be a metaphor for the rest of the Fire Nation but, nonetheless, he can’t tear his gaze from it. He watches and listens. Sulin and her friends head to a bar after some debate. Even as they move on, he doesn’t. Zuko has shifted from crouching to sitting as he’s pretty much confined himself to stare at the man. A couple of peasants pass the guy and even they don’t pay attention to him. To them, the beggar is little more than a ghostly presence, something one should stay far away from.

He decides, then and there, to be _different_. To be a charming prince, the one he’s supposed to be anyways, and rummages through his pockets to find, yes, a _golden_ coin. _This_ is the symbol of the Fire Nation – a golden coin as bright as the future of his homeland – and he will give it to the beggar. Zuko will ensure that this man becomes an upstanding citizen with this single coin alone! He will watch as the man stares up at him, at first uncomprehending of what gift he’s been given, and then his eyes will glitter in Fire Nation gold as the light of the lanterns above catches in the tears that’ll undoubtedly collect in those eye corners. The man will profoundly thank Zuko and despite him being in disguise, he will acknowledge the prince’s nobility and kneel down, declaring he will cease being a lacklustre nobody and instead praise Agni – and Zuko's family – and he will walk away a changed man.

Yes, that he will accomplish today!

So he slowly draws nearer to the beggar as to not startle him and then, holding his breath, Zuko drops the coin into the ceramic bowl. It lands on the three others, making a chiming sound of money falling onto other money – the prosperity and generosity of the Fire Nation.

Yet the man doesn’t move, doesn’t even seem to notice Zuko.

“You!” he grows slightly irritated at the blatant disrespect, “I have bestowed upon you the...” Zuko’s breath catches in his throat.

He swallows. His whole body slumps slightly. He turns around without another word, leaving the golden coin on top of three bronze ones. He wanders home in a daze.

He slips through the iron gates and doesn’t think of their inability to keep out intruders.

He climbs up to his open window, heads back in, hides away the Blue Spirit mask.

He can’t sleep when he lies on his bed. Every time Zuko blinks, he sees them.

The eyes of a dead man.

(How many people had passed that beggar? How many had not noticed his demise? ...and how many had done nothing but sneer down at him, so caught up in their disgust they didn’t even notice... didn’t even notice he doesn’t breathe?)

What, Zuko asks himself as he lies in his velvety red bed with golden embellishments decorating the edges of his covers, does that say about the Fire Nation?

(A year later, he’s branded as a traitor for speaking out for his people’s wellbeing.

A year later, he decides to kill his own father.

And that says more about the Fire Nation than anything else.)

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: droplet-dread-cat


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